The ASC Trinity Term Lecture delivered by Professor Tom Gilbert, exploring the analysis of bird genomes and evolution. Prof Tom Gilbert (University of Copenhagen) and colleagues have recently solved several major problems regarding bird evolution through analysing the genomes of over 48 bird species. Their work has been published in a significant series of papers in Science and other journals which together are considered the most comprehensive genome study of any major branch of the tree of life. Their results have provided new insights into other research areas including associations between gene activity patterns in the brain during birdsong and human speech and the explosion in bird diversity after the disappearance of the dinosaurs between 67-50 million years ago.

The acclaimed director, Rufus Norris, has just taken over as Artistic Director of the National Theatre – a role that is widely regarded as the biggest job in British theatre. Here he is in discussion with Robin Geffen.

Professor Angus Hawkins gives a talk about the history of coalitions in British politics as well as the current Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.

How and how far did orality play a part in the circulation of literature in early modern Italy? A lecture by Professor Brian Richardson. The literary culture of the period can be seen, in the terms of Walter Ong, as ‘residually oral’, since many kinds of compositions were diffused through the voice, in speech or song, as well as, or rather than, in writing. This paper will consider which kinds of texts might be performed, the occasions on which they were performed in public or in private, the professionals or amateurs who performed them, how and in which varieties of languages they were performed, using evidence from contemporary accounts and from the texts themselves. It will also suggest possible answers to the more difficult question of what the perceived benefits of performance might have been for the performer and the audience.

Dr. Misra, Lecturer in Modern History at Oxford University and a Fellow of Keble College, gives a talk on The Raj in Modern Indian Memory.

Professor Stephen Faulkner, Tutorial Fellow at Keble College, delivers the Richardson Lecture, entitled "Boxing Clever, or Just Boxed In? Developing Metal Complexes for Biological Imaging“.

Professor José Francisco Rodrigues, Lisbon/CMAF, delivers the ASC Complexity Cluster Lecture entitled 'Some Mathematical Aspects of Planet Earth' at Keble College. The Planet Earth System is composed of several sub-systems including the atmosphere, the liquid oceans and the icecaps, the internal structure and the biosphere. In all of them Mathematics, enhanced by the supercomputers, has currently a key role through the "universal method" for their study, which consists of mathematical modeling, analysis, simulation and control, as it was re-stated by Jacques-Louis Lions at the end of 20th century. Much before the advent of computers, the representation of the Earth, navigation and cartography have contributed in a decisive form to the mathematical sciences. Nowadays new global challenges contribute to stimulate several mathematical research topics.

In this lecture, we present a brief historical introduction to some of the essential mathematics for understanding the Planet Earth, stressing the importance of Mathematical Geography and its role in the Scientific Revolution(s), the modeling efforts of Winds, Heating, Earthquakes, Climate and their influence on basic aspects of the theory of Partial Differential Equations. As a special topic to illustrate the wide scope of these (Geo)physical problems we describe briefly some examples from History and from current research and advances in Free Boundary Problems arising in the Planet Earth. Finally we conclude by referring the potential impact of the international initiative Mathematics of Planet Earth (http://www.mpe2013.org) in Raising Public Awareness of Mathematics, in Research and in the Communication of the Mathematical Sciences to the new generations.

Professor Colin Renfrew, University of Cambridge, gives a talk that explores human creativity and the engagement between the individual and the material world.

Professor Daniel Javitch (Emeritus Prof. Comparative Literature, New York University) gives a talk for the Keble College ASC Creativity lecture series on 28th May 2013.

Professor Richard Sennett (London School of Economics) gives a talk for the Keble College seminar series.